Dunnage bag with attachment means

ABSTRACT

A dunnage bag provided with an adhesive strip for attaching the uninflated bag to the surface against which it will bear when inflated. An attachment tab which is an extension of the material of the bag itself provides a means for attaching the adhesive strip to the bag, and thus a means of attaching the bag to the surface against which it will bear when inflated.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION FIELD TO WHICH THE INVENTION PERTAINS

In transporting articles of various kinds, e.g., washing machines orother large consumer appliances, the articles are usually placed in thecargo space of a vehicle such as a railroad car. After placing thearticles in the car, it is desirable to prevent them from being damageddue to their shifting or moving around during transport. Dunnage bags,large air-inflatable bags often made of paper with an air-tight plasticliner, are a means of preventing such movement, and are used by manycarriers. These bags are placed between the articles to be shipped andbetween the articles and the walls of the cargo space and then inflated.The inflated bags provide a resilient cushion between articles andbetween the articles and the walls of the cargo space. At thedestination, the dunnage bags are deflated and removed to facilitateunloading of the articles.

Often it is desirable to set the uninflated dunnage bags in place beforethe vehicle is loaded, and then to load the articles into the cargospace around the bags. The bags are then inflated to hold the load inplace.

This procedure of loading around the uninflated dunnage bags permits thevoids between articles and between the articles and the cargo spacewalls to be kept to a minimum. If the dunnage bags were to be placed inposition after the vehicle was loaded, voids between the articles andbetween the articles and the walls of sufficient size to provide awalkway for a person positioning the bags would be required. With thebags in place before the vehicle is loaded, much smaller voids betweenthe articles and between the articles and the cargo space walls arenecessary. Thus valuable vehicle cargo space is conserved and when thebags are inflated the load is more snugly held in place if the bags arepositioned before the vehicle is loaded.

In the face of rising transportation costs, disposable dunnage bagswhich may be deflated and discarded when the articles reach theirdestination are preferred. Because the disposable bags are used onlyonce and then discarded, the art has tried to minimize their cost.Typically, the bags are constructed of inexpensive materials, e.g.,paper webs or sheets encasing a bladder made from a thin thermo-plasticmaterial. Another way in which low cost has been achieved is to providebags in certain standard sizes which must accommodate all configurationsof loads and vehicle cargo spaces. Also, because one large dunnage bagis less expensive than two smaller bags which occupy the same volumewhen inflated, the objective of minimizing costs has led to the use oflarger bags.

Dunnage bags which are 16 feet in length are commonly used in railfreight car applications. Typically, more than one of the 16 foot longbags must be set in place and inflated to provide restraint againstshifting of the load in a fully loaded freight car. These 16 foot bagsare cumbersome to set in place initially, and are difficult to keep inplace prior to and during inflation.

While the art has addressed itself to the attachment and placement ofinflatable dunnage bags in vehicles before the vehicles are loaded, thetypical arrangement is not suitable for disposable paper dunnage bags ofthe types which are now popular. Thus the invention disclosed hereinfacilitates the use of dunnage bags in vehicles which are not speciallyequipped with bag-supporting mechanisms. Finally it is contemplated thatthe invention described herein is especially suited for use with dunnagebags of various standard sizes and shapes, which can be used indifferent combinations to accommodate loads which vary in geometricconfiguration and is particularly well-suited for use with long dunnagebags which are so difficult and cumbersome to set and hold in place.

Prior Art

The prior art has generally been directed to providing attachment meansfor dunnage bags which require special modifications to the vehicle inwhich the bags are deployed, thereby decreasing flexibility inpositioning the standard size bags to accommodate varying load andvehicle cargo space geometries as well as requiring expensive means forattachment. These attachment means are frequently part of the bagsthemselves thereby adding greatly to the cost of the bags and makingthem too costly to be readily disposable after one use. For example,U.S. Pat. No. 3,131,648 to Seger shows a system for supporting dunnagebags in a rail freight car comprising rails mounted in the top of thecar from which hangers carrying hooks are suspended. The hooks engageeyes rigidly fastened to a bar affixed to the top of each dunnage bag,thereby suspending the bag from the top of the car.

Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 3,427,997 to Brown, Jr., et al., shows aninflatable bulkhead for a railroad car, which uses elastic ropesattached at one end to a movable panel in the bulkhead to supportpneumatic bags which are inflatable to provide cushioning. The bulkheadcontaining the inflatable bags can be positioned in the freight car, butan elaborate mechanism including overhead tracks mounted in the rail carand a latching mechanism in the bulkhead are required. Scott, in U.S.Pat. No. 2,674,206, teaches the supporting of an inflatable shoringdevice (i.e., a dunnage bag) in a rail car from rods suspended betweenshipping bins in the car. The rods engage metal eyelets in hanger tabsattached to the shoring devices, thereby suspending the shoring devicesfrom the rods. As shown by Scott, these hanger tabs must be individuallyattached to the inflatable shoring device thus adding significantly toits cost, which is inconsistent with the goal of making the bagdisposable.

In U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,977 to Mirando, inflatable cushions are supportedfrom stationary partitions in a freight car by hooks affixed to thepartition engaging eyelets provided on the cushions. In addition tobeing inflexible in not providing for movement of the partitions toaccommodate different load configurations, the hook and eyeletarrangement shown in Mirando has the disadvantage of addingsubstantially to the cost of the cushion.

Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,995 to Stafford, Jr., teaches the use of adunnage bag in a movable bulkhead for use on a railraod flat car, anddoes not address the problem of filling the voids between articles in anenclosed cargo space. Moreover, the inflatable dunnage bags shown byStafford, Jr., include metal anchor plates which must be bolted to thebulkheads, thereby adding substantially to the cost of manufacturing thebags and limiting the flexibility in placing the bags.

In summary, nothing in the prior art shows a means for providingflexible and facile dunnage bag placement to fill both the voids betweenthe articles being transported and between the articles and the walls ofthe cargo space of the vehicle. Moreover, the prior methods of placingdunnage bags add substantially both to the cost of the bag itself, andto the cost of the freight car or other cargo carrier in which the bagis to be placed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An adhesive strip is provided on a dunnage bag for holding theuninflated bag to the surface against which it will bear when the bag isinflated. The adhesive strip, in one embodiment, is affixed to anattachment tab formed from one or more plys of the material, usuallypaper, from which the bag is constructed.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a dunnage bag employing a preferredembodiment of the instant invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of a dunnage bag employing anotherpreferred embodiment of the instant invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, and particularly to FIG. 1, there isshown an exemplary dunnage bag 10 illustrating my invention in one ofits preferred embodiments. The bag 10 is constructed of a plurality ofpaper plys or webs, which envelop a bladder constructed of a thinthermoplastic material (not shown). The bag in FIG. 1 is shown in itsuninflated condition. Inflation is achieved by connecting a source ofpressurized air to valve 12 in the bag.

Along one edge of the bag there is provided a strip of self-adhesivematerial 13 such as a strip of adhesive tape. Preferably, theself-adhesive is covered by a strip of protective material 14 whichprevents the adhesive material from contacting and adhering to a surfacewhile the bag 10 is being handled prior to being set in place.Protective covering strip 14 is constructed of a material which adheresto the surface of the self-adhesive strip 13, but which can readily beremoved from the strip when it is desired to affix the bag to thesurface against which it will bear when inflated.

FIGS. 2-3 show another preferred embodiment of my invention. In thisembodiment, the self-adhesive strip 13 is provided on a specialattachment tab 15 which is constructed from one outside ply 16 of thedunnage bag. Referring now to FIG. 3, ply 16 is attached to anotheroutside ply 17 in the manner which is conventional in dunnage bagconstruction, namely, by an adhesive material applied at seam 18 toaffect a seal between outside plys 16 and 17. Air bladder 20, shown inFIG. 3, is inflated by connecting a source of high pressure air to valve12, in the same manner described in conjunction with the embodiment ofFIG. 1.

Alternatively, an attachment tab similar to tab 15 in FIGS. 2-3, butwhich is not formed from one of plys of the bag but rather is attachedto the bag to permit the bag to be affixed to a surface is alsocontemplated and is within the spirit of this invention.

I claim:
 1. An improved dunnage bag for protecting the contents of aloaded vehicle cargo space from being damaged by movements of thevehicle during transport by filling voids between the articles andbetween the articles and the walls of the cargo space, said dunnage bagbeing adapted for attachment prior to inflation to a surface againstwhich it will bear when inflated, and for deflation and removal from thecargo space at the vehicle's destination, comprising:(a) a substantiallyair-tight bladder which can be inflated from a supply of high pressureair; (b) an outer protective covering for the bladder constructed of aplurality of plys substantially encasing the air-tight bladder; (c) avalve in the bladder which permits the interior of the bladder to beconnected to a source of high pressure air for inflation of the bladder,the valve extending through the outer protective covering; and (d) anadhesive material affixed to the outer protective covering substantiallyalong an edge of the bag, which adhesive can be adhered against asurface to hold the uninflated bag in place while the vehicle is beingloaded around the uninflated bag.
 2. The improved dunnage bag of claim 1further comprising a protective covering for the adhesive material toprevent the material from adhering to a surface before the bag is inplace, the protective covering being removable when it is desired toaffix the uninflated bag to a surface.
 3. The improved dunnage bag ofclaim 1, further comprising an attachment tab located along an edge ofthe bag to which tab the adhesive material is affixed for adhering theuninflated bag to a surface.
 4. The improved dunnage bag of claim 3wherein the attachment tab is formed from the layers of the outerprotective covering.
 5. The dunnage bag of claim 1 wherein the outerprotective covering of the bag is constructed of paper and an adhesivestrip is affixed to the outer protective covering to hold the bag inplace before it is inflated.